The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Generally, chemical sensors need both selectivity, i.e., the ability to accurately discern one substance from another, and sensitivity. Nanotechnology provides the possibility of producing compact, highly sensitive, compound-specific chemical sensors. However, producing a nanosensor that incorporates the requisite selectivity and sensitivity is potentially very challenging because, as a general rule, the physical traits of a sensor that promote selectivity and sensitivity tend to work against each other.